The disappearance of four friends traveling for medical care sparked an international incident. Two were killed.
four U.S. citizens kidnapped at gunpoint in northern Mexico last week
The two survivors — Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams, who was badly wounded in his left leg — were rushed to the border in a convoy of ambulances and law enforcement vehicles and handed over to U.S. authorities in Brownsville, Texas. “This tragic incident only highlights a rising preoccupation in the United States about Mexico’s lack of interest in facing down organized crime,” said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute. The kidnapping in Matamoros, he said, “has become a symbol of impunity in Mexico.”
Each year, nearly 1 million U.S. citizens seek medical procedures in Mexico, where drugs and treatments are generally much cheaper than in the United States, according to the Mexican Council for the Medical Tourism Industry. Violence in broad daylight is common in Tamaulipas state, which has long been one of the most lawless regions of Mexico and which is the site of a turf war between dueling factions of the Gulf cartel. The state ranks high in homicides, kidnappings and “disappearances”; in the vast majority of cases, the victims are Mexicans.On Tuesday, some Mexicans reacted to news of the rescue operation with a mixture of relief and exasperation.
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